The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel eBook

“How are the ci-devant aristos to get this letter?”
the commissary asked.

“It must be put in the hollow tree which stands
by the side of the stable gate at Montorgueil,”
whispered Lucile.

“And the aristos will find it there?”

“Yes. M. le Vicomte goes there once or
twice a week to see if there is anything there from
one of us.”

“They are in hiding somewhere close by, then?”

But to this the girl gave no reply. Indeed, she
felt as if any word now might choke her.

“Well, no matter where they are!” the
inhuman wretch resumed, with brutal cynicism.
“We’ve got them now—­both of
them. Marquis! Vicomte!” he added,
and spat on the ground to express his contempt of such
titles. “Citizens Montorgueil, father and
son—­that’s all they are! And
as such they’ll walk up in state to make their
bow to Mme. la Guillotine!”

“May we go now?” stammered Lucile through
her tears.

Lebel nodded in assent, and the girl rose and turned
to walk towards the door. She called to the children,
and the little ones clustered round her skirts like
chicks around the mother-hen. Only Etienne remained
aloof, wrathful against his sister for what he deemed
her treachery. “Women have no sense of
honour!” he muttered to himself, with all the
pride of conscious manhood. But Lucile felt more
than ever like a bird who is vainly trying to evade
the clutches of a fowler. She gathered the two
little ones around her. Then, with a cry like
a wounded doe she ran quickly out of the room.

II

As soon as the sound of the children’s footsteps
had died away down the corridor, Lebel turned with
a grunt to his still silent companion.

“And now, citizen Chauvelin,” he said
roughly, “perhaps you will be good enough to
explain what is the meaning of all this tomfoolery.”

“Why, about those papers!” growled Lebel
savagely. “Curse you for an interfering
busybody! It was I who got information that those
pestilential aristos, the Montorgueils, far from having
fled the country are in hiding somewhere in my district.
I could have made the girl give up their hiding-place
pretty soon, without any help from you. What right
had you to interfere, I should like to know?”

“You know quite well what right I had, citizen
Lebel,” replied Chauvelin with perfect composure.
“The right conferred upon me by the Committee
of Public Safety, of whom I am still an unworthy member.
They sent me down here to lend you a hand in an investigation
which is of grave importance to them.”

“I know that!” retorted Lebel sulkily.
“But why have invented the story of the papers?”

“It is no invention, citizen,” rejoined
Chauvelin with slow emphasis. “The papers
do exist. They are actually in the possession
of the Montorgueils, father and son. To capture
the two aristos would be not only a blunder, but criminal
folly, unless we can lay hands on the papers at the
same time.”